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Washington

WASHINGTON, June 9—The only logical explanation of the Re­publican campaign for the Presi­dency is that it is really being directed by Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Nobody else lacking the Presi­dent's political skill and knee‐slap­ping. country humor could possibly have put together anything so ri­diculous or harmful to the Republi­can party.

It is a mystery only if you take it seriously. Nothing that has hap­pened, makes sense on the theory that the Republicans are either in charge or want to win. But once you assume that somehow Lyndon managed to capture the G.O.P. and direct all its moves, then suddenly all the peculiar developments of the last few days and months seem quite sensible.

Who gains when Lodge knocks off Barry and Rocky in New Hamp­shire, and Rocky knocks off Lodge and Barry in Oregon, and Barry then completes the civil war by de­capitating Rocky in California? Who else but Lyndon?

It is not reasonable to assume that the Republicans planned it this way. After they lost the last election they made a careful analysis of their weakness and concluded that it lay in the great urban centers of the North. Yet these urban areas are precisely the points of Senator Goldwater's strongest opposition.

His greatest strength lies in the South and the border states, yet no­body but his most ardent supporters believe he has a chance to take these states from the first Southern President in a hundred years.

Even in California, where Gold­water picked up the 86 delegates that put him so close to the nomina­tion, the Republicans, out‐registered by the Democrats 4‐3, gave him only the smallest of margins over Rockefeller, and of course, in the other two primaries where he had opposition from the other leading candidates — New Hampshire and Oregon — he lost.

Not since 1912, when the Repub­licans split over the Bull Moose candidacy of Teddy Roosevelt, have the leaders of the party, followed a strategy so calculated to help the opposition.

Had Johnson organized it all, it would add up. His concern was that he would have to campaign against a liberal, sophisticated, attractive candidate who knew something about foreign affairs and reminded the voters of Kennedy's style and manner.

Scranton and Lodge probably came closer to this description than any­body else. Even Nixon, who is both experienced in policy and rough on the hustings, might have been for­midable, but Goldwater makes John­son look like a liberal and a states­man, which are the two things the President needed most to win in the North.

The one thing President Eisen­hower has feared the most is that he would lose his dignity and his authority in the party, and in the last few days he has lost both. He didn’t want to intervene in the pre­convention fight or divide the party, but he has intervened just enough on both sides to irritate everybody, and he is now urging an “open con­vention” where he would have to serve part of the time as a private mediator and the rest as a television commentator!

Lodge is also in an awkward po­sition. He collaborated with Ike to gain control of the Republican party for the moderates in the fight against Taft, and is now the trapped and silent partner in turning the party over to Goldwater, who is to the right of Taft.

Only Rockefeller, who started in the most difficult position, has fought his way back on to solid ground. He lost, but at least he tried.

Scranton and Romney, however, who tried the hardest to avoid the battle, were dragged into it under humiliating circumstances at the end.

The Vanishing Indians

Thus, like the ten little Indians who went out to dine, one candidate after another has vanished:

“Ten little Indian boys went out todine;

One choked his little self and then there were nine.”(Stassen.)

“Nine little Indian boys sat up very late;

One overslept himself and then therewere eight.”(Scranton.)

“Eight little Indian boys, traveling in heaven;

One said he’d stay there and thenthere were seven.”(Ike.)

“Seven little Indian boys chopping up sticks;

One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.” (Nixon.)

“Six little Indian boys, playing witha hive;

A. queen bee stung one and thenthere were five.” (Rocky.)

The “One Little Indian boy, left all alone,” Is Goldwater, and the conservatives are pleased, but the happiest one of all is the Indian chief in the White House.